The art is cognizant of devices which are inserted into the soil to facilitate the distribution of water and/or fertilizer, or to aerate the soil to promote better plant health. Examples of teachings of such devices include U.S. Pat. 3,914,900 which illustrates a spike holding a seed and a fertilizer plug. Examples of teachings of tubes for introducing water or liquid nutrients into the soil around a plant may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,037,361, 4,089,133, 4,381,623, and 4,393,622. U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,356 discloses a similar tubular device for soil aeration. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 1,490,865 teaches a device for introducing fertilizer into the roots of trees. The referred to patents all employ means of distributing water or nutrients more directly to the roots by a system which is buried or injected into the soil by something such as a spike.
One of the conventional methods of feeding plants features a non-retractable spike inserted to a point below the surface of the ground, and not visible to the user. This method does not allow the user to know when the plant supply of plant nutrient has been exhausted, and therefore there is the chance that the user may guess incorrectly and either overfeed or underfeed the plant. Other methods suggest a tubular reservoir or a funnel by which the water and nutrients (in liquid form) are added more directly to the roots. This requires that the water-nutrient solution be pre-mixed and regularly monitored.